As impossible as it seems, 2011 was my fifth time through the year-end list shenanigans. Ranking albums is a ritual with which I've never been very comfortable. Reviews allow for questions and shades of gray, but straight numerical orderings imply a finality at odds with the way I actually experience music, i.e. by living with it and, sometimes, being made to change my mind. Now that I have a few of these lists behind me, though, I can see their retrospective value. If I hadn't recorded my … [Read more...]

Sick of lists yet? We'll make this quick and dirty. Best Country Albums of 2011 1. Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels 2. Hellbound Glory - Damaged Goods 3. Various Artists - This One's for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark 4. Matraca Berg - The Dreaming Fields 5. Reckless Kelly - Good Luck and True Love 6. LeAnn Rimes - Lady and Gentlemen 7. Justin Haigh - People Like Me 8. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO 9. Miranda Lambert - Four the Record 10. Dirt Drifters - This Is My Blood (Complete list with … [Read more...]

September may have been a somewhat skimpy month for new releases, but there was still plenty of good music to be had by those who were paying attention. Here are our picks for the best tracks on new albums released within the month. Slaid Cleaves – "One Good Year" from Sorrow and Smoke: Live at the Horseshoe Lounge If 2011 didn't pan out quite as you had expected, here's your song for the new year. Let's hope it's never too late to turn things around. Key lyric: "Just give me one good … [Read more...]

We may have fallen well behind on our Prime Cuts here lately, but it hasn't been for lack of good music. In fact, quite the opposite. Here are our favorite tracks appearing on new albums released in August. We'll do our best to hit September and October by the time this month is through, then it's full speed ahead to the end of the year. Since the idea is to get caught up, I won't take the time to comment on every last track. You can use the Amazon player to sample the selections and find … [Read more...]

You might not guess it from listening to your local country station, but there's a huge amount of good new music coming out all the time. All year long, we've been doing our best to help you find it. Here are our favorite songs appearing on new albums released in the month of July. Of course, we'd love to have you add some of your own favorites in the comments. Amazon.com Widgets If you're good at multitasking, here's a player for listening to samples while you read. Rodney Hayden – … [Read more...]

You didn't really think we'd let July come to an end without filling you in on our favorite new songs released in the month of June, did you? Well, here it comes... a big ol' roundup of good stuff. A couple of the June selections actually date back into May, but we're betting they're obscure enough that they'll be new to most of you anyway. I'll put the player up here so that you can hit 'Play' now and read along while you listen. That ought to help you plow through pretty quickly and … [Read more...]

Try as they might to play only bad, marginally country songs, country radio programmers sometimes accidentally let a smart, likable, non-pop recording sneak onto their playlists. While the error is usually caught early enough to swap the offending tune out for something by Lady Antebellum or Rodney Atkins, a few good songs inevitably stick around long enough to scale the charts and become bona fide hits. Here are the ten current country singles most deserving of that fate. Most are from major … [Read more...]